


Jacobstown

by Rambert



Series: The radicalization of Craig Boone [11]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Canon Queer Character, Communication, Confessions, Crying, Cussing, Emotional, Gay, I Love You, Independent New Vegas (Fallout), Letters, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Mojave Wasteland (Fallout), Out of Character, POV First Person, Sappy Ending, Slow Burn, Spoilers, Trans Character, Wartime Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28656807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rambert/pseuds/Rambert
Summary: A series of letters between Casey and Boone while they are separated. [minor canon spoilers, formatted almost entirely in italics using < em > tag]
Relationships: Craig Boone/Courier (Fallout), Craig Boone/Non-Binary Courier
Series: The radicalization of Craig Boone [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085471
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Jacobstown

**Author's Note:**

> ok so i admit this is unrepentant sap at this point but it's my comfort fic ok lol 
> 
> if you don't read the entire series this bisexual Boone of mine is probably gonna seem super OOC so don't complain if you don't wanna go back and see his growth :P 
> 
> jk u can roast me in the comments idc~

_01-17-2282_

_Dear Elliott,_

_Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Novac, and don't worry-- I won't be walking. The Crimson Caravan is going to hitch up the Medical Clinic's push-cart to a Brahmin. Pretty embarrassing honestly, but my hip still hurts so fucking bad I've got no choice._

_Now Ranger Andy and I will have something to bitch about together._

_I wonder if this mail will beat you to Jacobstown-- I miss you already._

_Write me back soon, okay? I hope that creepy dog gets better._

_Craig_

_\----_

_January 24th, 2282_

_Craig,_

_Just got to Jacobstown with the caravan today and was delighted to find out I had a letter from you waiting for me! I hope you're back in Novac by now, and please let me know how is everyone? I miss you all so much. And is your hip healing up all right?_

_Imagining you and Ranger Andy complaining about your injuries together is making me smile so big. I'm exhausted and going to end this letter here so I can fulfill your request to write you back soon._

_Oh and by the way the 'creepy dog' has a name, it's Rex, and he's going into surgery tomorrow so hopefully I'll have good news on that front soon!_

_Yours truly,_

_Elliott_

_\----_

_01-30-2282_

_Dear Elliott,_

_Got your letter today. How did Rex's surgery go?_

_My hip is almost completely healed up on the outside, but Ranger Andy and I have started doing physical therapy stretches together to try and get our mobility back. And my god, Case, that shit HURTS. Almost worse than the fucking machete did!_

_But other than that everyone is fine. They all miss you-- I miss you more._

_Mrs. Gibson has started teaching everyone the stuff you told her about maintaining the power grid-- even me, if you can believe it. We haven't had any major issues, and neither has HELIOS One. Ignacio came to town a few days ago, he said to tell you hello and that they're fine._

_Here's hoping this is my last letter to you because you're coming home soon,_

_Craig_

_\----_

_February 7th, 2282_

_Craig,_

_So, here's the part where you get mad at me... I'm not coming back for a while. I honestly don't know how long it will be at this point and I'm sorry, but I need to do this._

_(Pardon my scribbles, I don't have time to be neat because I have too much to tell you and so little time to write out this letter before the caravan leaves.)_

_Rex has made a complete recovery and is going back to Freeside with the caravan, but... I've decided to stay with Dr. Henry and Calamity to try and help the Nightkin._

_Do you remember that Nightkin who was killing the McBride's cattle last year? His name is Kelsi, and he and I have been talking a lot here. I tried to give him back his holotape, and he laughed and said that's not who he is any more. You should really hear him speak now, it's literally like night and day._

_The reason these Nightkin are so misunderstood is their addiction to Stealth Boys which causes schizophrenia. I had heard stories, but never the whole truth: Nightkin were humans once, stolen from their lives in order to be turned into super soldiers by cruel warlords. And they were given Stealth Boys on day one of their transformed lives and encouraged to use them-- it's tragic._

_One of the Nightkin here, Lily, talks to me often about her grandchildren in her less lucid moments, when her medication wears off and she can remember her old life. I talk to her a lot about you._

_I miss you terribly, but I hope you can understand that I need to do this. As soon as I got here I heard rumors from Marcus-- the leader of Jacobstown and a super mutant-- that the NCR had hired mercs to harass them, and sure enough I sniffed one out not two days later on the road._

_The NCR has been paying to outsource senseless slaughter of Nightkin rather than seek to understand what has happened to them, and I won't abide by that. I might have made a few threats and taken out a frag grenade then giggled at watching a tough-acting merc run away... but it worked, and Jacobstown is quiet again._

_So now that the Nightkin don't fear the NCR immediately outside their camp, I feel like they will stay here long enough to wait for the cure that Doc Henry and Calamity are recruiting my help to develop. In a few days when the weather clears up Lily and I are going to hike up Mt. Charleston. We're trying to find a Nightstalker cave where they've reportedly developed a mutation that resembles a Stealth Boy, to see if we can find anything useful for Doc to analyze._

_I accept that you will probably be (justifiably) mad at me for a while over this, but I really hope you can forgive me so that when I finally do come home, we can have a happy reuniting._

_I confess I can think about little else at night._

_Yours truly,_

_Elliott_

_\---_

_02-18-2282_

_Elliott,_

_You sure know how to punch a guy in the gut, you know that?_

_But you're right-- I can't stay mad at you, even for a day._

_I just got your letter today and when I saw the date on it and how long it took to reach me, I didn't want to wait for the next caravan. So excuse this too-brief hotheaded response to your long letter._

_It seems like everywhere you go, you just... do your best to help everyone. But who's helping you, Elliott? Did that Nightkin Kelsi remember what he said to you back at the McBride's? That you couldn't help him because you couldn't help yourself, and you agreed with him.  
_

_Fuck, I wish I was still traveling with you. I wouldn't even mind being up in Jacobstown, but it's a lot harder to find a group going that way here than in New Vegas._

_Besides, I'm needed here. Manny is sick with some sort of flu and I've been pulling extra guard shifts to cover his absence. Considering I've been gone on and off for months, this is the least I can do._

_You've got some nerve making me miss you this much._

_Craig_

_\----_

_February 27th, 2282_

_Dear Craig,_

_I cried so hard when I got your letter this morning-- I had worked myself up into such a ball of anxiety that I was certain you were through with me._

_Thank you for every word of your 'too-brief hotheaded response'-- I mean it. And I won't hold it against you if the next reply doesn't come right away, either. I have more faith in you than the mail delivery._

_The suspected Nightstalker 'mutation' turned out to be a busted lead, but after a few days of mulling it over I proposed that Dr. Henry use neuropeptides on harvested Nightstalker brains to mimic a live brain for increased testing accuracy on the Stealth Boy II. It seems to be working well enough so far, but still no definitive breakthroughs yet._

_Kelsi does remember what he said to me, and when I brought it up again he laughed and said I still need to work on that. You two would get along great._

_The Nightkin trust me more around here, even Keene-- I didn't think I could meet anyone grumpier than you, ha, but he'd give you a run for your money. And Lily and I are such close friends now that I'll be sad to leave her. She's quite the character, making me laugh almost as much as you do._

_But I miss you so, so much. The mutant-sized bed they've let me stay in here is gigantic without you to share it. Sometimes I wake up without you and feel so... lost._

[Here Casey has written, crossed out, and re-written words several times resulting in a scribbled mess of a paragraph:] _I can't help... wondering what might have happened back in Novac, if Ignacio hadn't interrupted us. If I hadn't caused that power surge. Am I the only one still thinking about it, Craig?_

_Yours truly, always,_

_Elliott_

_\----_

_03-16-2282_

_Dear Elliott,_

_Since you said you wouldn't hold it against me, I took some time with my response and waited until the next caravan to send this out. I'm not as quick with my words as you and don't want to mess this up._

_That night I set up that roof dinner to watch the meteor shower, I was wasted before you even came back to your room. I'd had so much to drink that I threw up right after you left with Ignacio. I didn't tell you at the time because I was embarrassed._

_I thought it'd be easier to not tell you. Then I wouldn't have to explain that the reason I got so drunk was because I was afraid of intrusive thoughts of Carla interrupting my time with you. I was afraid that she'd be upset with me for hooking up with someone else so quickly. Thought that somehow alcohol would fix that-- what a terrible idea that was._

_If we had kissed that night, or done anything beyond, I think I would have regretted it. Not because I didn't want you... I did. But the timing wasn't right for me. I was trying to force myself to move on before I was really ready. Strangely enough, I think we were interrupted for a reason all three times. And so you won't overanalyze this, yes I wanted to kiss you all three times.  
_

_I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about Carla often though. I was with her more than a year, and over half of that time we lived together here in Novac. I talk to her at her gravesite almost every day now. Mostly apologizing that I was such a dick to her-- the end wasn't even the worst of it Case. Being with you has made me realize I should have treated her so much better. It's no wonder we fought all the time whenever I wasn't drunk._

_When Carla would talk to me, I'd just sit there and let her voice wash over me like it was the radio. She made me forget about everything horrible I'd done in service to the NCR, and she made me forget we were at war. But I was selfishly using her as a distraction from a life that I was unhappy with. I think she started to realize this in Novac, and resented me for being so passive aggressive with her._

_You have done the opposite for me. Brought me kicking and screaming into a life where I no longer feel bad for what I do every day. A life I no longer need to forget, or escape from. I feel like I'm actually fighting for causes I believe in, not causes I'm forced to have loyalty to. And somehow, you've helped me face the ghosts of my past without even really trying. You just... help people, like you always do._

_Did you hear that NCR serves rations to all Freeside locals now? You got a postcard from Dr. Farkas last week, thanking you again for helping out them and the Kings. I guess she worked it out with the Major after all. You also got a postcard from The King, thanking you for helping Rex._

_Between that, and you reuniting with Kelsi, and everything else that's happened since you first came to Novac... I can't help but feel like things were meant to happen this way._

_And I'll wait for you, Elliott, as long as I have to._

_Yours,_

_Craig_

_\----_

_March 23rd, 2282_

_Dear Craig,_

_I can scarcely write for being so excited to tell you this:_

_I'm coming home. Leaving with the next caravan-- I should be back in early April._

_Also I love you. I wanted to wait to tell you that, but I just can't._

_And if you don't want to say it back right away, I won't get upset. Promise._

_Yours truly,_

_Elliott_

**Author's Note:**

> do we like this italics for letters format y/n?? I can't decide if I love it or if it's annoying. 
> 
> if you would rather see this series formatted as a singular multi-chapter work, please comment saying so. I prefer the formatting of a series, it's easier to adjust notes, but I could be persuaded to change this if y'all prefer chaptered stuff within one massive work. let me know.


End file.
